This week I took apart Lavender’s Blue to figure out where I went wrong. I think, once again, it was failing to identify the main story line. The idea was that it would be part of a mystery series that taken together would be a massive romance, but that doesn’t work. Mystery with romance subplot or romance with mystery subplot, although it’s really women’s fiction, I think, so . . .

That’s what I’m working on.

What did you work on this week?

Sorry, sorry, sorry.

How were you happy this week?

This week I read Buzzfeed lists and air fryer recipes and developed a lust for coconut shrimp. Also a lot of hockey romances for some reason; it must have been Guys-On-Skates week. I also started a book and wasn’t sure I liked it, so I quit halfway through and turned to the end and realized I’d read it before and hadn’t liked it. My mind, it’s like a steel sieve. And I read about what it means when your cat bites you but doesn’t bite down, how to make canvas shoes white again, and Modigliani’s miserable life, briefy (NYT). Yeah, it was that kind of week. That last one did make me want to watch the Doctor Who episode about Van Gogh again, but I just can’t face the kind of wracking sobs that ep always reduces me to; good sobs, it’s a fabulous story with a fabulous ending, but no ugly crying this week.

What did you read?

This week I did a lot of planning. I love planning. You don’t even have to get out of bed to plan, especially if you always have grid paper and pens on your bed, along with your laptop and iPad and a Diet Coke and some pretzels and a cat and two dogs and an Echo so you can tell Alexa to play that damn song you can’t get out of your head and . . .

Today, I’m cleaning my bedroom.

What did you do this week?

I love September. I’ve been in school for so much of my life–elementary (I skipped kindergarten, big mistake), junior high, high school, under grad, grad, post-post-grad, not to mention teaching in most of those–so to me September is the New Year, shiny new pens and crisp clean paper and and cool air (well, it used to be cool) and a faster pace to everything. I love summer, and spring is even better, but best of all is autumn. And I insist that September is autumn, even if it is 80 freaking degrees out there.

Happy New Year, Argh!

What made you happy this week?

This week I read The Undateable, which was fun. A librarian becomes an unattractive meme, and a slacker writer has to convince her to become part of his web-zine’s content by dating thirty guys in thirty days in order to save his admittedly no-brainer job. Characters who are fun to spend time with carried this one.

What I’m really excited about? The sequel to Novik’s Deadly Education is out on the 22nd. I have to find out why the heroine’s lovely mother warned her to stay away from Orion Lake (that’s the hero, not a large body of water).

What did you read this week?

Okay, people, it’s the start of a new (school) year, so we need to get working on that school supply thing. You’re not in school any more? I don’t see your point. THERE ARE SCHOOL SUPPLIES OUT THERE ON SALE. Get to work.

Other than the need to acquire new pens, paper, binder, paper clips, binder clips, folders, pencils, organizers, paint, chalk, brushes, canvas, rulers, protractors, calculators, backpacks, tablets . . .

Where was I? Oh, right, what else did you do this week?